We Know Some Stuff

In the height of DIY and the rise of the glue gun, Andre St Amant emerges from the ashes. Andre is a synthetic chemist and he is one the forefront of making innovative antibody drugs. Maybe you have heard of them before, maybe not, but after this episode you will know all about them and how he glues toxic stuff to proteins.

NERDS ASSEMBLE! Cagney Coomer assembles the nerds in her community and gets young girls interesting in becoming scientists. How does she do it? She makes science relevant. Cagney is a co-founder of Nerd Squad Inc. which focuses on getting young black and brown girls interested in science in and out of the classroom. This non-for-profit is making some waves, listen to her tell us all about it

What’s cooking in the chemistry lab? Marc Lennon knows. As a synthetic chemist Marc makes new things; sounds vague, but that’s because it is super complex. Good thing he is here to explain the ins and outs of synthetic chemistry.

Oh Jake Barnett has been in school for like 100 years. He went to school to teach, taught, and is back in school learning again. Along this way he learned a thing or two about learning, and now he is going to teach us how to learn and teach. That was confusing, let’s leave the teaching to him….

Birds are small, so their brains are small. But I think a bird has outsmarted me before on multiple occasions (not proud of it). Good thing we have people like Jeremy Spool who study bird brains so we can finally find a way to best the birds, and understand why they sing so loudly in the morning!

Ice skating, stamp collecting, rearing giant silk moths in buckets in your garage, baking. All of these are hobbies. Kit Straley might bake a little, not sure if she ice skates, and I don’t think she collects stamps, but I do know she raises giant silk moths. We all have hobbies and this is Kit’s. But what does it take to raise moths? Listen to Kit tell us what to expect when you are expecting (to raise moths).

Do you feel yourself drifting off? Does reading this make you sleepy? Writing it makes me sleepy. Well here is something to try to remember: Your brain consolidates memories while you sleep, but you can assist this process and even actively help your brain form solid memories a lot easier with a “life-hack” or two. Kyle Kainec knows the life-hack and is going to tell us all about memory and the sleeping brain

Your brain is processing written language while reading this. But what about all the other things your brain is filing through at this very second. The noises in the room, colors, lights, all the memories of the awkward moments from Mrs. Mantell’s first grade class on December 11th 1997…. nonetheless, your brain does a preventative process to choose what to focus on, and Erika Correll not only studies this, but talks with us about the process and why we should care

Mold! Who needs it? Its on out bread, in our showers, and grossly neglected by our landlords (I’m talking about my rental property Melissa). But not all molds are bad molds. Where do we draw the line between good and bad molds? Kim Acevedo knows a lot about Aspergillus oryzae and its evil cousin Aspergillus flavus who come from very similar roots, but perform very different functions. But why! hint, it is not because they feel like it, but because they are programmed to either make tasty food or wreak havoc on your bread!

Motherhood isn’t always smooth sailing, and even after the pregnancy is finished, postpartum depression can affect how a mother mothers. Sarah Winkour (as the title states) helps depressed rats be great moms, she studies postpartum depression in rats to learn more about how postpartum depression comes about and how we can potentially treat it in the future.